The invention relates to a supporting and guiding stand, in particular a supporting and guiding arc for continuously cast slabs, having roller paths supporting the strand at opposite sides thereof. The rollers which advantageously are divided, are journaled in uninterrupted longitudinal carriers formed in one piece. Suitably the longitudinal carriers of a roller path are adjustable or braceable, relative to the opposite roller path under elastic deformation to permit adjustment to various strand thicknesses.
By such a supporting and guiding arc, e.g. as described in Austrian Pat. No. 290,750 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,847), the strand is deflected from an approximately vertical direction into an approximately horizontal direction. The rollers lie precisely on pre-determined curved paths without discontinuities even after a re-adjustment of the roller path distance, so that no impermissible forces act on the strand skin. For this construction longitudinal carriers designed in one piece are essential, which longitudinal carriers extend over the entire length of the supporting and guiding arc.
In this supporting and guiding arc, the rollers are stationarily secured to the arcuate longitudinal carriers and are not drivable. When using a starter bar having a conical starter bar head and a thin starter bar body, the extraction of the cast strand is jerky. Only when the non-driven rollers have been passed, can extraction forces be applied to the strand or starter bar and therefore the starter bar has to have a corresponding length. It has been known to provide supporting and guiding arcs that are divided transversely to the longitudinal direction and whose roller path segments are mounted in separate stands supported on the base. The drivable pressure rollers, which are adjustable to the smallest cross-section of differing starter bar heads, are mounted in individual stands separate from the stands for the supporting rollers (German Auslegeschrift 1,758,533). As soon as the starter bar head of the starter bar approaches a pressure roller, the pressure forces acting on the pressure roller will be neutralized at this pressure roller, and the respective pressure roller is adjusted to the dimension of the cast strand. The running faces facing the strand of all the rollers must be precisely aligned, in order not to cause an unnecessary deformation of the strand and thus an increased extraction force or even cracks in the strand skin. A disadvantage of the construction described in German Auslegeschrift 1,758,533 consists in that the precise adjustment of the pressure rollers mounted independently of the supporting rollers in separate stands, to the thickness of the cast strand is difficult to carry out. It is a further disadvantage that whenever the strand thickness changes, the position of the pressure rollers has to be re-adjusted in addition to the position of the supporting rollers.